Sai is Sick
by 1Yui
Summary: Sai is sick. His team decides it's the perfect time to shower him with TLC. Sai just wants to get some sleep.


Sai is sick. His team decides it's the perfect time to shower him with TLC. Sai just wants to get some sleep.

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To Roaming Shadow: You're right. I changed the word to what I originally meant to use. ^^ Makes more sense. Thank you!

A/N: I considered making this an omake for Finding Home but thought it might ruin the seriousness of that piece so this'll be a separate one-shot. I read this old fanfic recently titled "Sick Days" by Totally Anime wherein everyone in Team 7 got sick except Sai. It's really funny so I thought what if Sai got sick this time? This is not a continuation of that fanfic. It's completely independent and sort of influenced by J-dramas' romanticized ideas of the flu. Really? Flu = Romantic? I think not. Right, Sai?

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**Sai is Sick**

by Yui

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Bloodshot. Eyes won't open. Throat hurts when he swallows. Sai lifts a heavy hand and rubs his eyes that he manages to half-open for a moment. His vision is blurry and the walls seem to be moving around him so he shuts his eyes again. He slides his hand up to his forehead and feels the heat mixed with sweat discharging from his skin. He lets his hand fall back down to his side with a soft thud. Then he coughs a dry spastic cough which sends his throat to make like it is getting ripped to shreds with his tanto.

Not in all his waking years has he ever gotten sick, as far as he remembers. Injured, yes, plenty of times. Near death, more than the digits on his hands and feet. But sick as in with a common cold or the flu? Never. He recognizes the symptoms only because he read about it in a book. And he witnessed Naruto in such state a couple of times in the past which made Sai wonder then how it really felt like. He always thought Naruto overacted, constantly whining like a little child and demanding he be taken care of by Sakura. The kunoichi would indulge him but not without the endless scolding as she made him soup or as she placed a little damp towel on his forehead. Having the flu didn't seem that bad. In fact, Naruto looked to Sai like he enjoyed himself whenever he was sick.

_Not…good…this is hardly enjoyable…will just…sleep. I should be fine in the morning…_

.

.

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**BLAG! BLAG! BLAG!**

Sai's head explodes like he's trapped inside a giant iron bell getting pounded by a battering ram from outside.

"Oi! Sai! Wake up!"

Sai can't make out whose voice it is or what's being said. It sounds like a slo-mo low-decibel line from a movie where someone is trying to hold on to something while falling off a cliff. "_Hwuungaawuohngaa…"_

**BLAG! BLAG! BLAG!**

_Stop…stop…_grabs aching head_…please stop…_

And it does. All is quiet again. Sai squints still closed eyes and breathes a sigh. _Thank you._

"Oi!" Naruto calls again but he's already inside somehow getting in through the window. "Wake up. We have training."

"Naruto…" Sai finally recognizes the voice. "Will take…day off. Please tell them…okay? Thanks," he says with eyes still closed. He shifts with effort to the side and turns his back against his visitor.

Naruto grabs Sai's arm and pulls back causing him to lie flat on his back. "Woah! You're burning up!"

"Yes…flu. I'm sorry, Naruto. I thought you were just overacting…"

"Huh?"

"…"

"Never mind…did you take some medicine?" Ignored again. Naruto drew closer to Sai's ear. "Oi! Did. You. Take. Some. Medicine?"

Sai's ears feel like they bled with every stressed word. "No. Just. Want. Sleep. Be fine in the morning," he says feeling like his throat is getting pricked with needles as he speaks.

"That won't do." Naruto looks around at the small apartment. Scrolls, books, brushes, paint, scrolls. He heads to the bathroom and opens the medicine cabinet. Bandages, wound ointments, bandages. "Geez Sai, don't you have any cold medicine?" He heads back out and finds the artist nin lying on his side again. "I'll be back," he says before exiting the apartment.

.

.

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_Buzz…buzz…buzz…bzz…wijuwijuwiju…buzz… wijuwijuwiju…_

Sai squints and struggles to raise his eyelids. What's with all the buzzing? He can make out fuzzy colors moving around, pink and red, yellow and orange. His head turns to one side and he finds white, black and green suspiciously still.

"Oh good, he's awake," he hears a female voice say. A hand slides under his head and attempts to lift it up. "Here Sai, take this." Some kind of pill is shoved inside his mouth then a glass of liquid touches his lips. Water suddenly passes his throat and he chokes and coughs.

"Aah, I'm sorry," Sakura blurts out as more water spills from the glass onto Sai's already soaked shirt. His eyes are wide open all of a sudden. Still trying to recover from the shocking cold, he looks groggily around and finds his teammates in his room, Sakura beside his bed, Naruto by his desk taking some stuff out of a plastic bag, and Kakashi sitting on a chair reading Icha Icha.

It takes a while to figure out what's going on, and then he remembers. _Aah, yes, friends are supposed to come over when you're sick. _He doesn't recall anything about getting doused with water though. How Naruto seemed to enjoy company in a state like this boggles him? But he knows they're doing it because they care. He figures obligatory thanks are in order.

"Thanks everyone. Nice of you to come but I need to sleep. I'll be fine in the morning." He seems to be saying that a lot today. That should end the business. He drops back onto his bed and closes his eyes, his back to them.

"Sai," Sakura nudges him. "You have to eat something."

"Hnn…?" He turns around and finds Sakura holding up a bowl. _Right. The traditional soup._ "No thanks. Just sleep."

"No. No. You have to take something. And you're wet. Naruto, help me." She places the bowl on the desk and then tugs at Sai's wet shirt.

"Wha-? wha-?"

"Not to worry Sai, we'll get you out of this thing in no time," Naruto declares.

"Stop fighting Sai, if you don't change out of that wet shirt, that flu could turn bad," Sakura scolds the confused nin. "Kakashi-sensei, would you take over please. I have to get a shirt from his drawer."

Kakashi walks forward and Sai's half-hallucinatory eyes pictures a wild white-haired monster with a dark cavernous mouth coming closer, hands extended and about to grab him. "There, there," Kakashi assures the struggling shinobi.

Sakura returns from the drawer holding a piece of clothing. "Really Sai, don't you have anything else other than plain black shirts?" Three pairs of hands muscle their way around Sai's body pulling off soaked shirt and roughly inserting the new one on. "Leggo," he manages to mumble in between but no one's relenting as they pull at his arms and rock his aching head back and forth.

"The bed sheet's soaked too," Naruto notes.

"Where do you keep your linen?" Sakura asks. Sai is sitting by himself now slouching on his bed staring blankly at her with eyelids half-closed. "Never mind, I'll find it," she says as she proceeds to the drawers again.

_Why won't they let me sleep? When Naruto's sick, Sakura does what he asks. I'm sick now. Why won't she do what I ask? Should I act like a little child? How does that go again?_

Sai flails heavy arms around a few times, pounds it on the bed like he saw Naruto did once. "I waaant…" he starts with a high-pitched voice, but then the whole thing doesn't feel right so he gives up and flops down on the bed again.

"What did you want Sai?" Naruto asks.

"Nothing. Just…sleep."

"No really, we're gonna take care of you today. Just name what you want. Ramen, do you want ramen?"

"…"

"Don't be silly Naruto," Sakura interrupts. "That's what you'd want. Come to think of it, I don't have any idea what he likes to eat. Sai, what's your favorite food?"

"Huh? Hwa?" A confused Sai mutters as he gets rolled over to one side of his bed. Sakura very quickly spreads new sheets in place of the old and rolls the helpless nin back to the other side.

"There! Clean sheets, doesn't that feel better?" Sakura beams at her expertise. "So what do you feel like eating?" Sai's mouth is hanging open in disbelief. _What is going on?_

A light knock turns everyone's attention to the door. Kakashi opens it and in comes about three feet of folded comforters being carried by Assistant Captain Yamato.

"Hello Sai. How are you feeling?" the kind-hearted ex-ANBU greets as he dumps the comforters beside the bed. "Excessive chills come with the flu so I brought extra blanket." While Yamato is saying this in a very informative manner, he's also spreading layers and layers of comforter on Sai who is by now a foot deep buried underneath.

"Good idea, Yamato-taichou!" Naruto says with a hearty thumbs up.

"Can't...breathe."

"Oh no!" Sakura gasps. "You alright, Sai? Chest congestion can do that. It sometimes comes with the flu, I'm afraid. You must take plenty of liquids-"

"Get this thing off me," Sai says in halted breath as he tries to push the heavy blankets off of him. "I'm not cold. I just want to sleep."

"Oh," Yamato says. "Don't chills come with the flu?"

"Not all the time," Kakashi says from behind. "Don't you know that?"

"Err…no. I just got my information from a book," Yamato replies sheepishly.

"Ahahaha! You sound like Sai," Naruto laughs while helping to get the blankets off the buried artist nin.

"You've never had the flu either, have you?" Sakura muffles a snicker. Everyone's chuckling now except…

"Please leave."

They all turn to the plastered shinobi on the bed.

"But you're sick," Sakura protests. "We'll take care of you till you get better."

"Sakura," Sai begins. "Why don't you just use your healing jutsu and get this flu out of me so I'll feel better?"

"Medical ninjutsu is for healing battle wounds. I'm afraid it doesn't work with common illness like the flu so you're just gonna have to get better the normal way like everyone."

Sai heaves a sigh. "Okay then. In that case, I feel like I just need some sleep. Would you all please leave? I'm glad you all came, really. But I'm sure I'll be fine if I just sleep." With that Sai grabs a pillow and cuddles it beside him as he lies down with his back to them.

_Buzz…bzz…wijuwijuwiju…buzz… wijuwijuwiju…_

After a moment of whispering, Naruto draws near and very softly speaks to Sai's ear. "We'll go, Sai. Take it easy."

"..Okay…thanks...everyone…"

One by one, shuffling feet exit the door. The last pair shifts back around and walks forward to the bed. Kakashi bends down and whispers. "Great to have friends who care, isn't it?

"Yes. But do your friends bother you when you're sick?" Sai asks without turning.

"Heck no. I never let them catch me sick." And with that, he's gone.

_Aaah…quiet at last._

*cough* *cough*

_Just need sleep. Will be fine in the morning._

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A soft thud as the door closes.

Ninja senses tingling. Someone's in the room…walking around…

Sai turns around to find…

"Sa...suke-kun?"

"So you're awake, idiot."

"What are you doing here?"

"I'm filling in until the others get back."

"Get back?"

"Yeah, they're just getting some supplies."

"They're coming back?"

"Of course, idiot."

"Why do you keep calling me idiot?"

"Only an idiot gets sick in summer, idiot." Sasuke is cradling a bowl on his lap and holds up a spoon to him. "Eat this porridge before it gets cold. Aaah…"

"NOOOOOOOOO!"

**~End~**

_Naruto & characters © Kishimoto Masashi_


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